Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a technique for performing high-resolution cross-sectional imaging that can provide images of tissue structure on the micron scale in situ and in real time (Huang et al. “Optical Coherence Tomography” Science 254(5035):1178 1991). OCT is a method of interferometry that determines the scattering profile of a sample along the OCT beam. Each scattering profile is called an axial scan, or A-scan. Cross-sectional images (B-scans), and by extension 3D volumes, are built up from many A-scans, with the OCT beam moved to a set of transverse locations on the sample. OCT provides a mechanism for micrometer resolution measurements.
In frequency domain OCT (FD-OCT), the interferometric signal between light from a reference and the back-scattered light from a sample point is recorded in the frequency domain rather than the time domain. After a wavelength calibration, a one-dimensional Fourier transform is taken to obtain an A-line spatial distribution of the object scattering potential. The spectral information discrimination in FD-OCT is typically accomplished by using a dispersive spectrometer in the detection arm in the case of spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT) or rapidly scanning a swept laser source in the case of swept-source OCT (SS-OCT).
Evaluation of biological materials using OCT was first disclosed in the early 1990's (see for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,501). Frequency domain OCT techniques have been applied to living samples (see for example Nassif et al. “In vivo human retinal imaging by ultrahigh-speed spectral domain optical coherence tomography” Optics Letters 29(5):480 2004). The frequency domain techniques have significant advantages in speed and signal-to-noise ratio as compared to time domain OCT (see for example Choma, M. A., et al. “Sensitivity advantage of swept source and Fourier domain optical coherence tomography” Optics Express 11(18): 2183 2003). The greater speed of modern OCT systems allows the acquisition of larger data sets, including 3D volume images of human tissue.
Improvements in imaging displays frequently accompany improvements in data acquisition methods and devices. For example, development of higher resolution imaging devices creates a need or motivation for higher resolution imaging displays; faster 2-D data acquisition increases the need for high speed data transmission and storage and motivates improvements in 3-D display applications; improvements in the signal to noise ratio in acquired data stimulates new uses and displays for that information.
Large medical imaging data sets, such as those acquired during volumetric OCT imaging, present difficulties in displaying relevant information to operators/users. Medical practitioners need to obtain relevant information quickly in a format that can be efficiently processed. A traditional approach to displaying 3-D volumes is multi-planar reconstruction, which simultaneously displays images from different viewing angles. The user then “scrolls” through the volume looking for relevant images. An alternative approach utilizes modern computational power to identify features of interest and present these to the user through volume rendering. Many times, an expert user benefits from observing individual slices of the image data directly. However, selection of these images can be time-consuming and there is a need to improve the means for accessing relevant slices. Herein, a volume slice will generally refer to planar data extracted from a volume, while B-scan will refer to a planar section of the volume that was acquired sequentially. In this sense, a B-scan is a slice, while a slice may be a B-scan. However, the terms are often used interchangeably in the literature and the distinction is often not relevant, since a slice could have been a B-scan under an alternative scanning sequence.